


we will find a brighter day

by darthtayter



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-19
Updated: 2016-02-19
Packaged: 2018-05-21 14:34:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6055147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darthtayter/pseuds/darthtayter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Troy is so rich he doesn’t even know how rich he actually is, because his wealth fluctuates from day to day, which he didn’t even know was a thing unless you had all your bills set to autopay or something. He’s so rich he can get the extra bacon on sandwiches until he dies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	we will find a brighter day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thirty2flavors](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thirty2flavors/gifts).



> prompt: troy/annie/abed “h-hey! why are you crying all of a sudden?!”

When Troy comes back, he knows he’s different: confident and self-assured, worldly-wise. Also, he has a beard now. But more importantly, Troy is very rich.

Troy is so rich he doesn’t even know how rich he actually is, because his wealth fluctuates from day to day, which he didn’t even know was a thing unless you had all your bills set to autopay or something. He’s so rich he can get the extra bacon on sandwiches until he dies.

The first thing he does when he’s docked in Santa Monica and has gotten a really,  _really_ nice hotel room (it’s so fancy he’s not sure if he’s supposed to use all the pillows or if the toilet is supposed to have that many buttons) is call Abed, but he doesn’t pick up. The second thing he does is take a bath, he hasn’t taken a real bath in at least two months, and he’s in there until he’s pruney and the water is past the point of tepid. The third thing he does is call Annie, but her number is disconnected. The fourth thing he does is sit around for a few minutes, lonesome and sad and unsure. 

The fifth thing he does is remember that holy shit, he is crazy rich, and he goes out and buys a new computer, a PS4, like ten games, and a television taller than he is.

He finds them later on Facebook, he finds group pictures that Annie still stubbornly tagged him in, he finds invitations to events that Abed threw while he was gone, he finds hundreds of notifications with his name in them _missing you today_ and _wish you were here_ and _=( thinking of you_ and _the ethics of cloning are scattered at best_ and on and on, over two years of his friends remembering him. He finds the study group scattered and splintered but still clinging together by the skin of its teeth.

Most importantly of all, Troy finds Abed online at two in the morning, and sends him a message: _so i’m back and i’m going to build the most awesome house of all time. you in?_

It only takes a second for Abed to answer.

_let’s start planning._

_i have a beard now._

_that’s cool._

 

-  
  


The Fortress of Comraderie only takes about six months to build, and literally about two hours to plan. Abed knew in theory that Troy would come back and everything would be the same, everything at its core would be like it was. That nothing could change them so much that they would be unrecognizable to each other.

He knew that, but it was kind of worrying until they saw each other, and it’s the same, it’s the same as it always was. They spend their days planning and plotting, their nights staying up late and watching movies, all the movies Troy missed, all the movies Troy always liked, all the TV shows Abed has been waiting to show him. Sometimes they leave to explore Los Angeles, and Abed shows him everything he likes, all the cool things about this place, and if Troy is a little quieter, a little more enigmatic, well, that’s probably just character development.

“You think we should do something else today?” Troy asks almost every morning when they’re having cereal and avoiding the workmen who are putting the finishing touches on TFoC (tm Troy and Abed 2016). Abed likes cereal, he likes Troy, he likes doing the same thing over and over again.

“Something’s missing,” Abed says, realizing all at once. Troy gives him a long, searching gaze, and nods.

“We’re building a house with slides instead of stairs. I don’t want that to change.”

“And a trampoline to reach cabinets.”

“Yeah! I like that. But we should…we should figure it out.”

“Do you need to return to the sea? Is this life too empty and pointless?”

“No. I bought four bikes yesterday. It was amazing. But you’re right, it’s something. Something is off.”

Abed doesn’t usually worry about variables he can’t control, but it stays with him until the solution hits him so hard that he stops and blinks.

Reboots are so in right now. There was really no other option.

 

-  
  


When Troy and Abed ask her to move in, Annie’s not shocked. It’s the kind of thing they would do. She is, however, pretty surprised when she accepts. This isn’t the kind of thing she should do, she’s twenty-four years old. She’s supposed to be over the time in her life where she plays pretend and stays up late watching superhero movies and moves in with a couple of dudes on a whim. Annie is supposed to be career-focused and serious. Annie is supposed to be successful.

“Oh my god, yes! Totally!” is her immediate and absolute reaction though, and that’s what she does. She quits her job in D.C. and moves cross-country less than a year after she moved here in the first place, she gives her work clothes to charity (she texts Britta about that one, she likes to get her approval about these kinds of things, even now), she rents a U-Haul and the boys fly out and roadtrip back with her. They stop every time they see a sign that interests them, they go to Graceland and the Grand Canyon and Disney World, parking the moving van on the edges of lots and paying exorbitant rental overage fees.

They see the world’s largest twine ball, teapot, and boot. They see Stonehenge recreated with cars, Plymouth Rock, Four Corners. They crisscross four states for twenty minutes, jumping from border to border and trying to hold increasingly impossible positions until Annie can’t breathe.

When they get to the house, Annie’s eyes are wide. She doesn’t know what she was expecting, but it’s like if a playground, a castle, and a spaceship all mated and had a weird three-way child. There’s a room of just pinball machines, and another room where the walls are aquariums. There's a pirate ship and a three-story treehouse in the backyard. There's a turret.

“This one is yours,” Troy says, pointing up a slide. It’s bright and airy, painted pale yellow with lavender stenciling.  She almost cries when she sees the carefully arranged pillows, the hand-drawn portrait of the three of them sitting on her bed, a red ribbon stuck to the corner.

“How did you know I’d come?” she asks neither of them in particular.

“Abed knew,” Troy replies, and that’s it, she can’t stand it, she’s lost it now, she can feel the first tears sliding down her cheeks.  Annie turns on her heel and collapses into Abed’s arms, presses her face into his chest, and he catches her like he’d  been waiting. He smells just the same, just like home, just like she’s right where she’s supposed to be, and what took her so damn long?

“Hey! Why are you crying?” Troy says, laughing at her in a touched way, and she doesn’t pull away from Abed, she just reaches out blindly until she feels his fingers wrap around hers, pulls him to her, pulls them both close, plants her lips on Troy’s forehead, and then Abed’s mouth, and they don’t have to talk about this. They’ll never have to talk about this. She knows how it’s going to be. They, the three of them, are different this way, because they always know.

The first night she ends up in Abed’s room, and it's everything she ever thought it might be, his long fingers and his soft eyes. The second night she’s in Troy’s bed, and it's more than she ever imagined it could be during all those years she spent imagining it (and she likes the beard, she likes it a _lot_ ). 

By the third night, it feels like she's been here for years. They all pack into her room, eating popcorn and planning, all the things they’re going to do, all the places they can go from here, every possibility open and waiting, and no matter which way she turns, someone is there.

**Author's Note:**

> i guess this is more annie and her two husbands rather than true ot3 but it's the best i could do.


End file.
